THE Abu Sayyaf group issued a fresh warning Tuesday threatening to harm three hostages, just over a week after they beheaded a captive.
The trio—from Canada, Norway and the Philippines—appealed for help from the Philippine and Canadian governments in a video uploaded to YouTube Tuesday and reported by SITE intelligence group, which monitors jihadist media.
“To the Philippine government: Please stop shooting at us and trying to kill us. These guys are going to do a good job of that,” Robert Hall, a Canadian, said in the video.
He said the kidnappers had told him to tell his own government “to meet the demand”—though he did not specify what the demand was.
The Abu Sayyaf announced last week they had killed a Canadian hostage, retiree John Ridsdel, as an April 25 ransom deadline lapsed.
Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Marites Flor, Hall’s Filipina girlfriend, also pleaded with the two governments.
The video showed them sitting on the ground, beneath what appeared to be a coconut plantation, with six gunmen standing behind them.
The Norwegian said that “if the demand is not met we will be executed like our friend John was a few days ago”.
One of the gunmen then warned Manila to heed the “lesson” of Ridsdel’s killing and avoid delays in negotiations.
President Benigno Aquino III has vowed to “neutralize” the gunmen and his government has said it will not negotiate with a group it considers a terrorist organization.
“In a statement last week, President Aquino already stated the following, which also addresses the latest threat, h said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. in a statement in reaction to the latest Abu Sayyaf threat.
“The full resources of the State are being brought down on the ASG. Our primary objective is to rescue the hostages and ensure the safety of our civilian population c, h said Aquino in his earlier statement.
“We have always believed in the power of dialogue, development, and positive engagement over arms. But we will always act from a position of strength. So, to the ASG, and whoever may aid or abet them, you have chosen only the language of force, and we will speak to you only in that language, h said Aquino.
“We will not stop until the threat they pose to our communities is ended, h Aquino also said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said—after announcing Ridsdel’s murder—that his government would not negotiate with the kidnappers.
Aquino said the three hostages were being held on the Abu Sayyaf stronghold of Jolo island, more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) south of Manila.
Ridsdel and the three were snatched from a resort elsewhere in the southernPhilippines in September last year, with the kidnappers demanding millions of dollars in ransom.
On Sunday the gunmen freed 10 Indonesian sailors they had abducted at sea five weeks earlier.
But they are also still holding four Malaysian and four other Indonesian sailors, as well as a Dutch birdwatcher abducted in 2012.